Education Secretary Vice President Sara Duterte lambasted the Makabayan bloc for the adverse comments over her traditional Bagobo Tagabawa attire during the State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
The Vice President said the Makabayan lawmakers are “desperately spinning things around as they scramble to make sense in a world that has already rendered them inconsequential.”
The Makabayan bloc reportedly denounced her Bagobo Tagabawa outfit as “callous and twisted justification” and likened her to former President Rodrigo Duterte’s “red-tagging and terror-tagging” and closing down of Lumad schools in Davao City.
“From the Bagobo Tagabawa dress that I wore to the SONA to Salugpungan schools shut down in Davao City and the red-tagging of Eufemia Cullamat — we have seen how Makabayan Bloc is desperately spinning things around as they scramble to make sense in a world that has already rendered them inconsequential. Makabayan bloc, with member partylist groups suffering the tragedy of losing during in the election last May — and this is something that speaks volumes of their relevance today and could, even more, speak volumes of their contribution to nation building, or the apparent lack of it — now attempts to make the Filipino public believe that their intentions are noble when they curiously started this tit-for-tat with a criticism of that Bagobo Tagabawa dress I wore to the SONA,” Duterte said in a statement.
Duterte stressed that Makabayan bloc cannot be trusted and no self-respecting Filipino should fall for its drama.
In October 2019, the regional office of the Department of Education (DepEd- Davao Region) ordered the closure of the 55 controversial Salugpungan Ta’Tanu Igkanogon Community Learning Center, Inc. (STTICLCI) because the schools were not serving the interest of the learners, which is to provide them with basic education.
“The Salugpungan schools in Davao were all shut down because they lacked permits and documents that would have lent legitimacy to the existence and operations of the schools. While the Salugpungan schools were shut down because they were illegally operating — the schools were run by teacher volunteers who allegedly had links with the terrorist group New People’s Army, the Communist Party of the Philippines, and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines,” Duterte said.
Duterte warned the Filipino people not to fall for “the fakery being peddled by Makabayan bloc or to this disgusting deliberate effort to twist the narrative to favor their interest and the interest of the NPA, CPP, and NDFP.”
“The dress that I wore to the SONA and why I wore it doesn’t really interest Cullamat and the rest of Makabayan bloc. They can lie about it but the Salugpungan schools that we shut down do not also matter to them. And the IP children being potential recruits of the NPA is something that’s within their political agenda so it’s only convenient for them to turn a blind eye on this,” she said.
The vice president’s irritation at the bloc did not end there because, in her latest statement released on Monday, Duterte stressed that the Makabayan bloc has fooled many people, is good at propaganda and is good at lying.
“Sa loob ng maraming panahon, walang naglakas-loob na ilabas ang katotohanan tungkol sa kanila. Gagawin natin ito ngayon. Ilang batang Pilipino na ang kanilang nahikayat na sumanib sa NPA para sumali sa isang gyera na hindi naman nauunawaan ng mga kabataan — isang gyera na hinding-hindi nila maipapanalo dahil isa itong gyera na laban sa kapwa nila mga Pilipino,” she said.
Duterte congratulated the Filipino people for finally purging Congress with the likes of Bayan Muna and Eufemia Cullamat. She said with Bayan Muna and Cullamat removed from the halls of Congress means that the country, the Filipino children, most especially the IP children, are now more protected from the ideology of destruction and war than the Makabayan bloc espouses.
“I always have time for Makabayan bloc. The laugh that I get reading Makabayan bloc’s hypocritical and dramatically rehashed statements — while thinking about how the Filipino people rejected the bid of Bayan Muna and two other Makabayan bloc partylist groups to once again infiltrate Congress and legitimize their existence while pretending that we do not know about their ‘love affair’ with the NPA, the NDFP, and the CPP — is a way to de-stress from all the challenges the Department of Education and the government need to address without the help of Makabayan bloc, of course,” she said.
